All of last week was uber-busy. It was our last Arts Council performance and I was the lead. This was the performance that was supposed to happen in February but was cancelled due to snow. Another little spar thrown in the works was that we had promised to provide dinner, but the woman who usually does that for us was called out of town. So, I pulled Emily and Allie into the mix. Thank goodness they were willing to help because I had NO clue how to make chili.
Between kickboxing, rugby, Parks-to-Paradise race meeting and everything else that was going on, I was pretty much not getting home 'til 8 or 9 and trying to get everything fixed up on all of my breaks and lunch. Saturday morning was the start to a nice relaxing day.
Our performers were supposed to show up at 6 with the show starting at 7. Well, one of them showed up at 6:55. Thank goodness Gardiner is so relaxed. I myself am not usually relaxed. In fact, I almost started freaking out because I wasn't panicking. But really, the worst thing that might happen would be that we'd sell off the dinner and have to refund some season tickets. No biggie. Especially since I'd get my post-show cocktail that much faster.
Then, Saturday, Josh came down to look for jobs and we got to spend some time together. Good weekend.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Guatemala-Thursday
Well, we started off the day at the country house but there was nothing much to do so we all tripped on over to the city house. Where we poured concrete. Yep. It was concrete. Again.
We had lunch and then went to get the wood for the benches. Once again, the kids loved seeing me and I got hugs and high-fives all around. It was freaking awesome. The benches were cheaper to build so Todd fixed up a plan and we went to work. Well, they only let me do a little because, though I dearly love me some power tools, I'm not incredibly proficient.
That night was Miriam's birthday. Miriam was the owner, with her husband Gilberto, of the hotel where we were staying, Marelyn's mother. So Marelyn made a cake, some of Miriam's friends and family came and the family got a DJ. Yes, across the street in the hotel's garage, there was a DJ. It was the thirteen of us dancing our hearts out for the second night in a row. It was fun and exhausting and I was so glad there was only one more day of work because I was just tired of having so much fun.
We had lunch and then went to get the wood for the benches. Once again, the kids loved seeing me and I got hugs and high-fives all around. It was freaking awesome. The benches were cheaper to build so Todd fixed up a plan and we went to work. Well, they only let me do a little because, though I dearly love me some power tools, I'm not incredibly proficient.
That night was Miriam's birthday. Miriam was the owner, with her husband Gilberto, of the hotel where we were staying, Marelyn's mother. So Marelyn made a cake, some of Miriam's friends and family came and the family got a DJ. Yes, across the street in the hotel's garage, there was a DJ. It was the thirteen of us dancing our hearts out for the second night in a row. It was fun and exhausting and I was so glad there was only one more day of work because I was just tired of having so much fun.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Guatemala-Wednesday
Wednesday, hump day. I was looking forward to being halfway done. In the morning, I helped do more concrete in the country house. We finished up in time for lunch. After that was more ESL with the pastor and his wife. I also helped bring wood from the top tier (the pastor's house) into one of the school classrooms. So there were these great long boards that I was carrying one end of. When we walked onto the school grounds, all of the kids started yelling "Jessica, Jessica." I felt like a rock star. After putting the boards down, we noticed that one of the things the kids were learning was English. One of their sentences was "My name is Linda."
Well.
One of the women in our group said, "My name is Linda!" And the kids looked at her wonderingly and then very obediently parroted, "My name is Linda." It was so... darn... cute!
That night was pretty fun as we all went to Zacapa and danced the night away with another CALMS group from Indy. Okay, our group danced and the other group kind of sat. The band was awesome especially since it was Jovanni (Yo-van-nee)'s marimba band. Very, very fun.
Only depressing part of the day came from the dentist's group. They had to pull out the permanent molars of an eight-year-old. Just eight years old and her teeth were that bad. Blergh.
Well.
One of the women in our group said, "My name is Linda!" And the kids looked at her wonderingly and then very obediently parroted, "My name is Linda." It was so... darn... cute!
That night was pretty fun as we all went to Zacapa and danced the night away with another CALMS group from Indy. Okay, our group danced and the other group kind of sat. The band was awesome especially since it was Jovanni (Yo-van-nee)'s marimba band. Very, very fun.
Only depressing part of the day came from the dentist's group. They had to pull out the permanent molars of an eight-year-old. Just eight years old and her teeth were that bad. Blergh.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Dude
Dude, I'm, like, totally loving this video. There're some definite language issues but this is totally representative of discussions I've had while drunk and talking about eighties cartoons.
Monday, April 12, 2010
An exciting weekend
I hope to finish up my exploits in Guatemala soon but I'll throw in a little about my weekend. Friday night was a blast, watching the Gardiner school kids put on a play with the Missoula Children's Theater. This group sends pairs of people all over the states and seventeen countries to work with kids everywhere. Monday, they hold auditions and then practice the rest of the week with the play on Friday. This year's play was a riff off of Robinson Crusoe and was funny, touching and so... damn... cute. Especially the little K-1 chameleons.
Saturday, Heidi and I went up to Livingston to participate in the Trout Unlimited River Cleanup. We ended up getting assigned to the Carbella put out, about 10 miles from Gardiner. A lot of time in the car that day. But we cleaned up quite a bit of trash. My best was a pair of waders. Heidi found a stash of dirty magazines. But we did a good thing, got to enjoy the beautiful weather, got a free lunch, and I won a shirt in the raffle. Woo hoo!
I got back into town with time to spare for a shower and change before the annual Gardiner chapter of the Ducks Unlimited Banquet. For the past five years I've been a Duck Girl. I run around selling raffle tickets and then helping carry items for the live auction. Actually, this year I helped run tickets for buyers to sign. What the hey, it's an hour of open bar, free dinner, and time spent with people I don't normally get to see. It's also one of the very few nights of the year that I'll go out to the bar and stay later than 10 o'clock.
Sunday, I again joined Heidi, but this time also Mariah, Leigh Ann and Trudy to head up to Bozeman for the last Symphony performance of the year. The soloist was okay but the second half was the music from Stanislaki's Petrouchka. The director stopped after each act to explain what would have been going on if this had been the ballet. It was incredible.
We stopped off at the Second Street Bistro in Livingston for dinner. They have the best cocktails in this area. On Sundays, they also have a pizza buffet. Well, they bring pizzas around and offer you pieces of some really great food. Quite a wonderful weekend.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Guatemala-Tuesday
My group started out at the country house mixing cement. But we got done early, so we switched over and helped mix cement at house number two.
Tuesday was supposed to be the hottest day in history for that date so our leader decided that we would take the afternoon off. So, we took two vans and went up to LA Advanzada. It was up in the mountains and therefore much cooler. We looked at the community center that had been built by some other churches then went for a stroll around the village. It was an incredibly poor community that had been devastated in the past year by an earthquake that had killed something like six people out of the 600 that lived there. The houses were made out of cement block or clay bricks. The bricks were the mud/horse manure/hay mixture that you see on National Geographic shows. It was incredible.
The other big story from that day was one of the patients that the doctor treated. It was a thirteen-year-old girl. She had a baby. And was pregnant. Again.
Soccer field. Hate to be the team that has to retrieve a ball from that goal.
Bricks drying in the sun
Community Center
Views on the way up the mountain
Tuesday dinner. The touch of fancy on the left is actually ketchup.
Tuesday was supposed to be the hottest day in history for that date so our leader decided that we would take the afternoon off. So, we took two vans and went up to LA Advanzada. It was up in the mountains and therefore much cooler. We looked at the community center that had been built by some other churches then went for a stroll around the village. It was an incredibly poor community that had been devastated in the past year by an earthquake that had killed something like six people out of the 600 that lived there. The houses were made out of cement block or clay bricks. The bricks were the mud/horse manure/hay mixture that you see on National Geographic shows. It was incredible.
The other big story from that day was one of the patients that the doctor treated. It was a thirteen-year-old girl. She had a baby. And was pregnant. Again.
Soccer field. Hate to be the team that has to retrieve a ball from that goal.
Bricks drying in the sun
Community Center
Views on the way up the mountain
Tuesday dinner. The touch of fancy on the left is actually ketchup.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Guatemala-Monday
First day of work. General confusion at the buses ends up with my group, which was supposed to go to the house with shade, ending up at the house with absolutely no shade. On a day that it reached the nineties. In the shade. Whatever. I didn't know the difference so I just went along with it.
My first job was to help scrape sand off the floor to make it even so the guys doing the actual cement work could... well... do the actual cement work. When that was done, I took turns with my father, Marc and Joe mixing the cement. They apparently do have cement mixers in that country, we saw one in Guatemala City, the folks we were helping out were just to poor to afford them. Which, you know, makes sense 'cause otherwise we wouldn't be down there.
It was freakin' hot but we retired to the local Lutheran school to eat lunch. The first day it was hot dogs and soda with chips. I don't think I've eaten a hot dog in at least a year or so until then. But I was hungry, so it worked out well.
After lunch, our group stuck around at the school to help get a wireless connection set up from the pastor's house to the office. The way the school is laid out is on a hill so it's kind of three tiers with the offices on the first tier, the school on the second, and the pastor's house at the top of the hill. Well, the guys were having trouble yelling from the first to the third tiers so I wandered to the second tier to be the go-between.
The second I walked into the gates, I was mobbed. At least six kids were hugging me. It was pretty awesome. I kept saying "Hola! Hola!" as I speak no Spanish whatsoever. They noticed my name tag and one kid said "Dessica" and I said "Yes, my name is Jessica" so they all started shouting, "Dessica! Dessica!"
One of the kids asked me a question and I replied (and forgive my spelling, all of my Spanish thus far has been from CDs and podcasts only), "Lo siento, no habla Espanol." To which they all roared with laughter. Yes, I suppose that it is funny that I told them that I can't speak Spanish... in Spanish. Well, then I remembered one thing, "Hold on, hold on, I know one thing in Spanish. Okay...okay, Tengo un hermano, ce llama Josh" (I have one brother, his name is Josh). They once again thought that this was hilarious and started repeating, "Dosh! Dosh!" Then it was time for them to go back to class so I reluctantly waved goodbye.
The internet mission was a success. I also got to sit in on Pastor Luis and his wife Nancy's English lessons which was pretty cool. They were boning up on their English and I got to pick up some more Spanish words.
After work at the hotel was pretty fun. We just all sat around and talked about one "good thing" and one "bad thing" that happened that day. The hotel owners, I think, were a little at a loss on how to deal with us. They set us up some benches in the street and just let us run amok until about 10 when we all finally made it to bed.
My first job was to help scrape sand off the floor to make it even so the guys doing the actual cement work could... well... do the actual cement work. When that was done, I took turns with my father, Marc and Joe mixing the cement. They apparently do have cement mixers in that country, we saw one in Guatemala City, the folks we were helping out were just to poor to afford them. Which, you know, makes sense 'cause otherwise we wouldn't be down there.
It was freakin' hot but we retired to the local Lutheran school to eat lunch. The first day it was hot dogs and soda with chips. I don't think I've eaten a hot dog in at least a year or so until then. But I was hungry, so it worked out well.
After lunch, our group stuck around at the school to help get a wireless connection set up from the pastor's house to the office. The way the school is laid out is on a hill so it's kind of three tiers with the offices on the first tier, the school on the second, and the pastor's house at the top of the hill. Well, the guys were having trouble yelling from the first to the third tiers so I wandered to the second tier to be the go-between.
The second I walked into the gates, I was mobbed. At least six kids were hugging me. It was pretty awesome. I kept saying "Hola! Hola!" as I speak no Spanish whatsoever. They noticed my name tag and one kid said "Dessica" and I said "Yes, my name is Jessica" so they all started shouting, "Dessica! Dessica!"
One of the kids asked me a question and I replied (and forgive my spelling, all of my Spanish thus far has been from CDs and podcasts only), "Lo siento, no habla Espanol." To which they all roared with laughter. Yes, I suppose that it is funny that I told them that I can't speak Spanish... in Spanish. Well, then I remembered one thing, "Hold on, hold on, I know one thing in Spanish. Okay...okay, Tengo un hermano, ce llama Josh" (I have one brother, his name is Josh). They once again thought that this was hilarious and started repeating, "Dosh! Dosh!" Then it was time for them to go back to class so I reluctantly waved goodbye.
The internet mission was a success. I also got to sit in on Pastor Luis and his wife Nancy's English lessons which was pretty cool. They were boning up on their English and I got to pick up some more Spanish words.
After work at the hotel was pretty fun. We just all sat around and talked about one "good thing" and one "bad thing" that happened that day. The hotel owners, I think, were a little at a loss on how to deal with us. They set us up some benches in the street and just let us run amok until about 10 when we all finally made it to bed.
Sunrise from my balcony
Hanging from the van's mirror, loosely translated:
God is my guide, but I'm the driver
Working at the "country house"
Work Jessi! Work!
Mix that cement!
Finding relief in the only shade around
A group photo of the folks at the "city house"
The girl in front is actually the daughter of the folks who owned the hotel
Marilyn was awesome. She came out to volunteer and helped
translate and was really a part of the group. She's going to school to become
a chef and cooked quite a few of the desserts while we were there.
They... were... a
General confusion in the morning. Not an uncommon scene as the days went past.
Monday dinner. Chicken with sauce
Hanging from the van's mirror, loosely translated:God is my guide, but I'm the driver
Working at the "country house"
Work Jessi! Work!
Mix that cement!
Finding relief in the only shade around
A group photo of the folks at the "city house"
The girl in front is actually the daughter of the folks who owned the hotel
Marilyn was awesome. She came out to volunteer and helped
translate and was really a part of the group. She's going to school to become
a chef and cooked quite a few of the desserts while we were there.
They... were... a
General confusion in the morning. Not an uncommon scene as the days went past.
Monday dinner. Chicken with sauce
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